Wind turbines can be erected on-shore or off-shore. Large wind turbines being capable of providing an electric power up to about 6 MW are typically installed off-shore. In particular for maintenance reasons self-excited generators having a rotor assembly with permanent magnets are employed. In the near future wind turbines being capable of providing an electric power in the order of more than 10 MW will be provided by wind turbine manufactures having a special expertise in the field of off-shore wind turbines. For several technical reasons an electric generator being capable of providing more than 10 MW of electrical power must have a diameter in the order of more than 7 m.
Such large wind turbine generators are typically realized as self-excited generators with an inner stator-outer rotor configuration. Thereby, a plurality of stator segments each comprising several electric coils or windings are mounted one next to each other along a circumferential direction at a circular outer edge of a stator frame structure. At a circular inner surface of a rotor frame assembly, which is torque proof connected to a wind rotor and which, in operation, rotates around the stator frame structure, there are mounted a plurality of permanent magnets which, when moving along the stator segments, produce a time alternating magnetic flux through each electric coil. This time alternating magnetic flux induces an electric current in each electric coil. The currents produced in each electric coil respectively by each one of the plurality of stator segments are collected or summed up and yield an electric power output of the generator.
Collecting the plurality of currents produced in the plurality of stator segments by an appropriate wiring arrangement is easy for small or medium sized electric generators which have a diameter of e.g. less than two or three meters. Known wiring arrangements comprise several massive bus bars for conducting the currents to an electric power interface of the generator. It is obvious that in larger electric generators it is more challenging to provide the stator assembly with an appropriate wiring arrangement as larger generators not only have a larger spatial dimension but also a higher number of stator segments which have to be electrically connected to an electric power interface. In particular, a high number of stator segments require a plurality of electric conductors which have to be mounted in a compact manner in and/or at a stator frame structure of the stator assembly.
There may be a need for providing a stator assembly having a plurality of stator segments with a wiring arrangement which can be realized in a compact manner and which can be mounted to a stator frame structure of the stator assembly in an easy and effective manner.